Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Heather Cook is scheduled to appeal before a Parole Board hearing on 9 May 2017, offering the possibility the former suffragan Bishop of Maryland will be paroled two years after she was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for having struck and killed a cyclist while driving while intoxicated. On 27 Oct 2015 a Baltimore City judge sentenced Cook (60) to 20 years imprisonment, but suspended 13 years of her sentence. Cook was to serve five years for manslaughter followed by a two year sentence for leaving the scene of the accident. She was sentenced to a further five years probation upon completion of her term. Cook, who currently is incarcerated at the Maryland Correctional Institute in Jessup, is eligible for early release as a non-violent offender under Maryland parole guidelines. According to court records on the afternoon of 27 Dec 2014 Cook was driving her car on Roland Avenue in Baltimore while intoxicated -- her blood alcohol level was later recorded at .22 per cent, three times the state’s legal limit. She then began to text whilst driving and swerved out of the traffic lane onto the bicycle lane, striking cyclist Richard Palermo from behind.